POTATO CURE FOR RHEUMATISM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1287, 20 August 1914, Page 4

POTATO CURE FOR RHEUMATISM.

Considerable interest is being taken in a report on the curvative value in certain common conditions of raw potato juice, which recently appeared in the “Lancet, ” and which since then has been published in book form. The new treatment might be described as “Spudotherapy.” The author of this report, who is a medical man practising in the South of London, has for some time utilised as a remedy potato juice made by squeezing the raw vegetable iu a powerful press as the basis for various preparations, notably liniments and plasters. This juice, to which the highsounding technical , name of “extractum solani liuqidium” had has been given, is said to contain large quantities of potash salts. It is claimed that the application of the preparations of raw potato have a rapidly curative action in various common ailments of the rheumatic kind, including lumbago, mild joint rheumatism, and synovitis: the latter is the common condition of spelling and effusion (water) which occurs round joints and ligaments that have been bruised or sprained. Remarkable results are reported in the cure of these conditions from the use of hot fomentations or poultices made with the potato juice, as well as of cold plasters made from the same substance.

It is notable that amongst the successes recorded is included a case that was treated at St. George's Hospital under a wellkuown surgeon. In this example the patient, who had been suffering from watej: on the kuee for some five wrecks, was cured in less than a fortnight. For lumbago and rheumatism it is recommended that potato juice ointment should be rubbed well into the painful parts, whilst the treatment may further be aided by the special plasters. For severe bruises and sprains it is advised that the hot poultices referred to above should be first resorted to, when it may be expected that the pain will quickly be relieved, and the swelling go down. The treatment has also apparently some application in gout, although its chief advocate does not claim it as a direct cure for this malady. In gout it would appear ffiaf potato juice applied in'the right manner' will quickly relieve pain and swelling, although it may not be able _ to relieve the general constitutional symptoms. In the article referred to seven cases of acute gout are recorded in which the remedy was applied success. I